The Chamberlain Litany: Letters within a Governing Family from Empire to Appeasement - Hardcover

Marsh, Peter T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1906598630 ISBN 13: 9781906598631

Publisher: Haus Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

The Chamberlains were the most controversial dynasty in British public life for more than sixty years. They were a close-knit family, and they treasured that solidarity throughout their lives. Bereft of a mother and with a largely absent father, the children of Joseph Chamberlain clung to each other as they grew up, and they kept in lifelong touch by letter. Based on those family letters, this book explores the accounts that the Chamberlain children told each other about the events in their lives.

The two sons, Austen and Neville, followed their father into the highest echelons of British public life, and Neville eclipsed his father in fame. Their story is told through the eyes of their sisters. Hilda, the youngest of the surviving children, discovered that a pattern was repeated in the lives of all three men, a pattern that she recited in a kind of litany echoed by the family. Hilda’s litany spoke of the way in which the Chamberlain men secured victory for each other over their adversaries. Her story reached its climax when Neville met Adolf Hitler in Munich on the brink of war and managed to preserve the peace. But Hilda had reckoned without the last and greatest adversary of the Chamberlains: Winston Churchill. Churchill’s achievement, first in winning the war that Neville had failed to avert, and then in writing a history of that war that damned Neville for its outbreak, forced Hilda to change her interpretation of the Chamberlains’ story from a hymn of praise to a lament.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter T. Marsh is an expert in 19th/20th century Britain and the international political economy. The author of several major works of historical biography, including Joseph Chamberlain, Entrepreneur in Politics (Yale, 1994). He is an Honorary Professor of History, University of Birmingham

Review:

"a fascinating story..." - Miranda Carter, the Telegraph -- Miranda Carter Telegraph 20100524 "Marsh's writing is engaging, clear, and his contentions are well-supported through extensive research. The most interesting aspect of the book to me was how much the daughters were involved in political discussions and debate - and that their opinions were well-respected; of course with that respect came somewhat of an obligation to support and help sustain the males' political careers, which may have been part of the reason three of the four sisters never married." -- Michelle Fabio Bleeding Espresso Blog 20100730

About this edition

• Publisher: Haus Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1906598630
• ISBN 13: 9781906598631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 350